Aerial ropeway



H. F. H. SHIELDS AND J. P. HOE.' v

AERI'AL ROPEWAY. APPLICATION FILED AUG.2I, I919.

Patented July 27, 1920.

2 SHEETSSHEET I =2: 22:? 1N MUN H. F. H. SHIELDS AND J. P. ROE.

AERIAL ROPEWAY.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.2I, 1919.

1,347,763. Patented July 27, 1920.

2 SHEETS$HEET 2.

and 12 206, y

i I UNITED STATES PATENT, OFFICE.

HERBERT FREDERICK HENRY sHIELns, OE'W'EIJLIN QAND QH PEARCE ROE, OF LONDON, ENGLAND, ASSIGNORS TO ROPEWAYS LIMITED, o LoNnoN, ENGLAND.

AERIAL ROPEWAY.

Patented July 27, 1920.

Application filed August 21, 1919. Serial No. 319,012.

of the kind in which a single rope carries detachable boxheads, and in which the load, supported vertically beneath the rope, is carried by a hanger extendinglaterally out- .ide the plane containing the load and the rope. The invention has for its main object to provide means whereby the high trestles which at present are commonly used where the ropeway passes-over depressions, may.

be dispensed with, one or more shorter trestles being substituted therefor; a second object of the invention is to provide means for producing pressure on adjacent supporting sheaves.

' It will be appreciated that the high trestle becomes necessary because the rope is ordinarily only carried over a supporting sheave which must be at such a height that when the rope is unloaded and is therefore pulled tight under the tcnsioning means it will not lift from the sheave; when the rope is loaded there is, of course, no tendency for it to lift from the sheave even if the latter were placed lower than the level required for the reason stated.

It has been proposed to; provide holdingdown means for the rope to avoid the use of high trcstles, but difficulties arise owing to the fact that the boxheads or carriers, which are secured to the rope for carrying the loads, have to pass such holding-down means. lVhen the carrier in use is a simple band fixed to the rope it may be allowed to pass as one with the rope between opposed sheaves, that is a depression-sheave and a supportingsheave vertically beneath it. These carriers, however, are little employed because they make it impossible to run the load from the rope on to shunts. If the detachable form of boxhead is employed which is larger than the simple fixed carrier, the boXhead is either knocked off the rope when it comes into contact with the depression-sheave, or it or both are damaged. To avoid this difficulty and yet use the detachable carrier, it has been proposed to limit the load on the depression-sheave' This, however, means that the rope can only be moderately depressed and therefore the gain effected is inappreciable. 'lVith a depression-sheave whose load is thus limited,

it has also been proposed to use a yieldinglycontrolled supporting-sheave placed opposite the depression-sheave so that when a load is passing,'the rope is carried by the yieldingly-supported sheave. This moving sheave is inclined to get out of order, and,

as already stated, the degree of depression possible by this method is but slight.

Further, at places where the gradient of a rope changes it has been proposed to provide a depression-sheave between two supporting-sheaves mounted at different levels on a trestle carrying a short shunting rail at the side of the sheaves, but these sheaves were not spaced apart as described hereinafter, nor did the boxhead pass under the depression-sheave.

An aerial ropeway of the kind described according to this invention comprises the combination with a depression-sheave, of

guides constructed to engage by their under faces a boxhead as the rope carries it past the sheave, the undersides ofwhich guides rise with an easy incline from their ends adjacent to the sheave to their outer ends, which guides moreover extend on either side of the sheave to points spaced considerably farther apart than are the opposite ends of any one boxhead passing beneath them. Preferably the-guide is so shaped in crosssection on its under side as to guide the rope on to the sheaves should it at any time tend to be displaced laterally therefrom.

Another object is to provide a boxhead of an improved construction for an aerial ropeway of the kind described. lVhere the boxhead is provided with off-set side wheels on one side of it for shunting purposesaccording to this invention, an elf-set steadyingpiece (for example another pair of off-set wheels) may. be provided on the opposite side of the boXhead, the wheels and steadying-piece being made both toso engage the guide as to keep the boxhead at the same angle laterally when passing a guide as it assumes when free of'the same. This. arrangement prevents the setting up of a lat;

eral swing on the load when engaging" the guide, and if double shunting rails are employed, placed at the proper level relatively to one'another, the same wheels and steadying-piece will prevent lateral swing being set up when the load is transferred to or delivered from such shunting rails.

Another important object of this invention is to provide a boxhead-guide of the kind referred to above so arranged that the deflection of the rope from its normal position caused by a boxhead passing between a depression-sheave and the rope shall be less than that which occurs when the guide isnormally fixed on the trestle.

Another Object is to enable a boxhead provided with only one set of off-set wheels on one side thereof to be used with guides of the kind described applied to depressionsheaves, whereby an additional set of off-set wheels on each boxhead is avoided.

' A further object is to provide the boxhead-guide for usewith a boxhead as just described with an anti-friction device for reducing the friction between the guide and a non-rotatable steadying-piece on the side of the boxhead remote from that provided with off-set wheels.

A still further object isto provide that a boxhead-guide shall adjust itself automatically to any inclination or angle of the rope.

Other features of the invention are described hereinafter and pointed out in the claims.

The invention is illustrated byway of example in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure I is a side elevation showing a depression-sheave provided with one form of guide according to the invention, and an Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic side elevation,

showing part of an aerial ropeway constructed according to the invention;

l is a side elevation showing a modified form of boxhead-guide according to the invention, a boxhead being shown situated tion device provided on a boxhead-guide ac cording to the invention, and I 7 Figs. 8 and 9 are detall views, enlarged,

showing-in vertical section and side eleva tion, respectively, the anti-friction device 2 idcd with a guide E for guiding the rope and boxheads F carried by the latter. A bucket G is suspended from each boxhead in the usual manner. As shown 1n guide E Figs 1 and 2, the boxhead F is provided with t'wo off-set wheels F on one side of it for shunting purposes in theusual manner, and is arranged to be secured to the rope A by detachable clips or jaws F 2 such as are already well-known, but the boxhead is further provided with a second pair of off-set wheels F disposed on the opposite side to that whereon the first set ismounted.

Each depression-sheave D is mounted to rotate vertically above the rope A in its ,Quide E which extends forwardly and rearwardly of the same. This guide E is built up of two plates E E placed side by side, bolted together and hung by pins E from the cross-beams B of the trestle. Each plate #1 E has at its lower edge an outwardly directed flange E, E respectively, which is curved in cross-section so that the two flanges provide an approximately concave face on the under side. The working portion of the grooved rim of the pulley D lies in the center of this concave face and at a point approximately midway between the ends of the channel thus provided, and the whole channel is made convex or cam-shaped in the direction of travel, that is to say, a horizontal straight line joining the ends of the guide lies higher than the center of it. The length of the guide E is such that its opposite ends are considerably farther apart than are the opposite ends of any one boxhead passing beneath it. The off-set wheels F and F of the boxhead are so spaced apart that as the boxhead arrives at the guide E the wheels will enter the channel therein, and by bearing against the one end of the guide the boxhead will be smoothly forced down to the sheave and delivered with equal smoothness therefrom by the other end of the guide.

The trestles shown in Fig. 3 are erected at the bottom of a wide valley. A trestle B having a single depressionsheave D with its guide E is provided in the middle of the spanned dip, and other trestles B B are disposed, one on the receiving and the other on the delivery side of the same, each carrying a supporting sheave C. Other trestles B 13 each having a depressionsheave D are erected'on-either side of these trestles B to B and still other trestles B B, each carrying two supporting sheaves, are erected beyond the former trestles. The distance between the supporting sheaves and the adjacent depression-sheaves is such that when a boxhead passes a depression-sheave with a load which is in excess of a predetermined minimum it shall cause the ropeway to sag sufficiently to clear the depressionsheave andits guide without touching the same. V

It willbe seen that so long as aropeway having its parts constructed as described above is carrying loads which are in excess of a predetermined minimum the boxheads will not be subjected to any shock in passing the depression-sheave, as owing to the sag of the rope the engaging wheels will be too low to come into contact with their guide, but as soon as the boXhead has passed the depression-sheave the rope itself returns into the groove in the sheave either directly or with the aid of the guide, and so will always'be kept in place. If the loads carried by the ropeway are lighter than the predetermined minimum, then each boxhead will engage the guide of the depressionsheave and so force the rope down to allow the boxhead to pass, butthe shock will be less than would be the case if a heavier loadwere being carried without provision for sag, and the displacement will be easily effected because it is brought about gradually by the'inclined face of the guide.

is the axes of the offset wheels are set at'right angles to theline of suspension of the load, it will be appreciatedthat there 7 is no tendency to set up a lateral swing as the load passes a depression-sheave, whereas this would be the case if wheels were used on only one side of the boxhead and no steadying-device wereprovided on the other. Similarly, when the load is being shunted from the ropewayby using 'two shunt rails instead of one and engaging both pairs of wheels with the rails, the'line of suspension can again be maintained the same on the shunt rails as on the ropeway.

Owing to thetransverse wheel-base of theboxhead being relatively large greater safety is afforded to the passlng boxhead.

Obviously it is not necessary to use two 7 pairs of wheels as a single wheel would do on one side, or even a guiding pin. Also a boxhead l (Fig. 3), having only one pair of off-set'wheels F and no guide on the other side can be'used, but in this case the force tending to swing the boXhead and the bucket carried thereby about the rope must be taken up by a'guard or abutment B carried bythe trestle, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2; Further, it isclear that fixed clips of the known form can be used consisting of a thin steel'band placed around the rope and then tightened.

The empty bucket G is shown in dotted lines as suspended from such a fixed clip H.

Referring now to Figs. l -(S, a boxhead or carrier F", which is provided with two offset wheels F 'on one side of it for shunting purposes in the usual manner, is further provided with a non-rotatable off-set steadying-piece in-the form of an inverted slipper F constituted by a curved flange formed on theframe of the boxhead and extending from end to end thereof. v

A boxheadguide J for guiding boxheads or carriers F past depression-sheaves D D has the form of a double-ended lever or beam which comprises plates J J bolted together and is fulcrumed to rock about a pivot-pin K secured'to a cross-beam B of a trestle. Two depression-sheaves D1, D are mounted on the rocking guide J, the distance apart of the sheaves being such that they normally depress the rope A at two points spaced considerably farther apart than are the opposite ends of any one boxhead passing beneath them. Allotted to each of the depression-sheaves and situated at one side thereof are curved guide rails 3 which are for guiding the'wheels F of a boxhead passing under the guide J, and

on the opposite side are provided curved guide rails J' for guiding the slippers F of the boxheads. Each rail J has allotted to ittwo sprocket-wheels M and M mounted between the plates J J and carrying a roller chain N which constitutes an antifri'ctiondevice for co-acting with the steadying-pieces. I

It will be seen that by providing a recess at J 5 in the middle portion of the guide J the operative faces of the guide are divided into two parts, one for each depressionsheave. The depth of this recess is greater than the height of any one boxhead passing beneath the guide, and the inner ends of the guides rise gently into the recess. 'Owing to the guide members being curved as shown, the rope leaves and returns to the depression-sheaves gradually when the boxheads enterunder and leave a depression-sheave, whereby undue shocks on the boXheads are avoided.

Referring to Figs. 7 to 9, the curved guide rail J insteadof being provided with a roller chain N as described above, has -a series of staggered anti-friction rollers O, O mounted thereon which are arranged to co-act with the slipper F of a boxhead passing'beneath them. T

It will be appreciated that instead of the lower part of a boXhead-guide being curved in cross-section and having an approximately concave face on its underside, asdescribedabove with reference to Figs. 1 and 2, for accommodating two sets of off-set wheels on a boxhead, a guide comprising a rail, such as J on one side for co-acting with wheels on only one side of a boxhead may advantageously be employed in conjunction with a roller chain, such as N, and with staggered rollers such as O, 0 arranged on the other side of the guide and adapted to co-act with a part, such as the slipper F, fixedon the frame of a boxhead. Such. an arrangement enables boXheads hav-' ing each only one set of off-set wheels to be employed with a guide that is not mounted to rock on the trestle carrying it.

The employment of a pivotally mounted guide, such as J, has the advantage that it will automatically adjust itself to any inclination 01' angle of a rope, and, further, it can be-mounted upon the usual gudgeon provided for the reception of ordinary mounts when a series of compensating sheaves are employed. Again, when a boxhead is passing one depression-sheave in a rocking guide and temporarily presses the rope away from that sheave; the rope remains in the groove of the second sheave in the same guide and is always depressed by either one orboth depression-sheaves.

Itis to be understood that the details of construction of the guides, whether fixed or movable, described above for the depressionsheaves may be varied, and also the construction of the boxheads, without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in, the claims. For example, the guide E or J instead of comprising plates bolted together can be made in one piece with a slot for accommodating the depression-sheave. Fun ther, instead of a guide having arms of equal length, the one depression-sheave may be pivotally mounted farther from its fulerumpiece than is the other, and in lieu ofantifriction roller-chains or the like plane rope guides may be employed. Moreover, the lay-out of the ropeway will vary according to the conditions in each case, and according to the type of boxhead or carrier it is proposed to employ.

.lV-hat we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. A device of the character described for cooperation with 'boxheads of aerial ropeways, comprising a depression-sheave, and guides on opposite sides thereof, said guides having a length greaterjthan the length'of a single boxhead, substantially as described.

2. A device of the character described for cooperation with boxheadsof aerial ropeways, comprising a depression-sheave, and guides on opposite sides thereof having their lower surfaces inclined downwardly toward the sheave, said guides also havinga length greater than the length of a single boxhead, substantially as described.

A device of the character describedfor cooperation with boxheads of aerial rope; ways, comprising a depression-sheave, and

memes guideson opposite sides thereof, said guides having t e r lower surfaces gr ually inclined-downwardly toward the sheave and havinga length greater than the length of a single boxhead, substantially as described.

4. A- device of the character described, comprising a depression-sheave, and guides V on opposite sides thereof, said guides hav ing their lower surfaces inclined downwardly toward the sheave, substantially as described. I V q 5. A device of the character described, comprising a depression-sheave, and'guides on opposite sides thereof, said guides hav ing their lower surfaces inclined downwardly and inwardly toward he sheave, substantially as described.

. 6. In an aerial ropeway of the character described, comprising a depression-sheave, a boxhead, o f et Side wheels onone side of the boxhead for engagement with the usual shunting rails, and an offset steadying-piece on the opposite side of the boxhead, substantially as described. 1 V

7. The combination in an aerial ropeway of the character described, comprising a depression-sheave, of a boxhead having offset side wheels on both. sides thereof for engagement with the usual shunting rails, and guides for engagement with said wheels, substantially as described.

8. In an aerial ropeway of the character described, comprising a depression-sheave, a

boxhead, offset side wheels .on one side of the boxhead for engageme'nt with the usual shunting rails, an offset steadyingpiece on the opposite, side of the boxhead, and guides cooperating with said wheels and steadyingpiece, substantially as described.

9. In an aerial ropeway of the character described, comprisinga depression-sheave, a boxhead having ashunting wheel on each side thereof, and guides having inclined surfaces cooperatmgwith said wheels, substantially as described.

1 0. In an aerial ropeway of the character described, the combination with a hauling cable, of spaced supporting sheaves therefor, a depression-sheave intermediate said.

cable out of engagement with the depression-sheave with any load in excess of a predetermined minimum, substantially as de-' scribed.

12. A boxhead guide of the character de scribed, comprising a pivoted guide member, depressionslieaves carried thereby and journaled in the guide, and a hauling cable in engagement with said sheaves, substantially as described.

13. A boxhead guide of the character described, comprising a guide, a fulcrum therefor, and depression-sheaves journaled in the guide, substantially as described.

l-l. A boxhead guide of the character described, comprising a guide, a fulcrum therefor, and depression-sheaves journaled in the guide on opposite sides of the fulcrum, said guide having its lower edge inclined for cooperation with a boXhead, substantially as described. v

15. A boxhead guide of the character described, comprising a guide, a fulcrum therefor, and depression-sheaves journaled in the guide on opposite sides of the fulcrum, said guide having its lower edges provided with anti-friction means for engaging with a boxhead, substantially as described.

16. A boxhead of the character described, comprising spaced guides, a fulcrum therefor, depression sheaves intermediate said guides, and journals for said sheaves, on op posite sides of said fulcrum, substantially as described.

17. A boxhead of the character described, comprising spaced guides, a fulcrum therefor, depression sheaves intermediate said guides, and journals for said sheaves on opposite sides of said fulcrum, said guides having their lower edges formed for engagement with a boxhead, substantially as described.

18. A device of the character described for use with boxheads having offset side wheels on one side only, comprising a guide for engagement with said wheels, and a secondyguide for engagement with the opposite side of the boxhead, substantially as described.

19. A device of the character described for use with boxheads having offset side wheels on one side only, comprising a guide for engagement with said wheels, and a second guide for engagement with the opposite side of the boxhead, said second guide being provided with anti-friction devices, sub stantially as described. r

20. A boxhead guide according to preceding claiming clause No. 19, wherein the antifriction devices are in the form of endless chains, substantially as described.

21. A boxhead guide of the character described, comprising a guide member having a recess of a depth greater than the height of a boxhead, said member having guide faces on opposite sides of said recess-for engagement with a boxhead, and a fulcrum for said mounting, substantially as described. 7

22. A boXhead guide of the character described, comprising a guide member having a recess of a depth greater than the height of a boxhead, said member having guide faces on opposite sides of said recess for engagement with a boxhead, a fulcrum. for said member, and depression-sheaves carried by said member on opposite sides of said fulcrum, substantially as described.

23. The combination in an aerial ropeway of double shunting rails, and a boXhead having a plurality of offset side wheels for engagement with said rails, substantially as described.

24. The combination in an aerial ropeway of a plurality ofdouble shunting-rails and a boxhead having an offset side wheel at each side thereof for engagement with said rails, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification.

' HERBERT FREDERICK HENRY SHIELDS.

JOHN PEARCE ROE. 

